Lundberg Bakery (Austin, Texas)

The Lundberg Bakery, also known as the Old Bakery and Emporium, is a historic bakery building currently serving as a gift shop in downtown Austin, Texas. The building was completed in 1876 and is located at 1006 Congress Avenue, half a block south of the Capitol grounds. At the time the bakery began operations, bread was not sold wrapped or packaged. People would wait in line with cloth lined baskets to place the bread in after buying it. Short story writer William Sydney Porter frequented the bakery as he passed it to and from work while employed at the General Land Office Building.

The building served as a bakery until its owner, Swedish immigrant Charles Lundberg, died in 1895. The building changed hands frequently until being bought and refurbished by the Austin Heritage Society in 1962. It was threatened with demolition in 1970, when a new building was planned for the Texas Department of Transportation, but saved when excavations next door uncovered the foundations of the previous state capitol building (a temporary structure built in 1882). Following the discovery, the foundations were converted to a historical plaza, and the bakery was saved.